Hot dogs, served on a bun, or heated. Meal replacement bars. Five or fewer donuts. The list goes on and on.

According to State of Connecticut Department of Revenue guidelines, popular food items including ice cream (sold in containers smaller than a pint), pizza (whole or slices), rotisserie chickens and more, will be taxed at 7.35% beginning on Oct. 1, at grocery stores, convenience stores, big-box retailers and elsewhere.

There's also an extensive list of taxable drinks: take-out coffee, beer, wine, distilled spirits, kombucha and milkshakes. And BYOB restaurant diners will have to pay a 7.35% corkage fee on their bottles of wine.

How did we get here? 

Courant Capitol bureau chief Chris Keating shares recent developments, which seem to pop up almost daily, on Connecticut's so-called Sales and Use Taxes on Meals.

How much will new food taxes increase your grocery bill starting Oct. 1? We take you through it.

News

Tolls or no tolls: it's the seemingly endless Connecticut argument, right up there leaving or staying in the state.

Well, some sort of end is coming: the 2020 legislative session convenes on Feb. 5. If left unsettled, the toll debate risks being lost in the white-out of sports betting, vaping, recreational marijuana, the budget and other likely issues up for discussion.

Capitol bureau chief Christopher Keating talks about transportation's last gasp on the latest podcast.

Two weeks before Connecticut’s 2020 legislative session begins, lawmakers are still debating tolls

Michael Vigeant (GreatBlue Research) and Lesley DeNardis, Ph.D. (Sacred Heart University) discuss a new Hartford Courant/Sacred Heart University poll.

A new poll shows Connecticut residents favor Biden among Democratic presidential candidates

You might have parked in a metered parking space to pick up your dry cleaning (you want to look good when you meet your new interior designer).

Hopefully, you also just snagged some new safety goggles, for when all that dust is flying around your house.

Time to peek at your bank account: yikes.

On Jan. 1, a new wave of taxes, fees and laws took effect in Connecticut. We're not talking break-the-bank amounts, but for many Connecticut residents, every dollar matters.

Content editor Russell Blair talks new Jan. 1 taxes and fees on the latest podcast.

The business entity tax vanished on Jan. 1, but you’ll have to pay more for dry cleaning and parking

We covered a lot of ground in 2019.

The government shutdown. The seemingly endless toll debate. The Stop and Shop strike, opioid epidemic, the hottest month in Connecticut history, PFAS chemical spills ... on and on.

Along the way, we set up microphones in bars, restaurants, breweries and markets, places like Tangiers International Market, Story and Soil Coffee, Spectra Wired, the Bushnell Park Beer Garden, Know Good Market, Hanging Hill Brewing Company and the short-lived Royal nightclub, and interviewed as many people as we could find.

For the final podcast of the year, we put together clips featuring some of the folks we interviewed. Thanks for listening to Capitol Watch.

From Gov. Lamont's inauguration to pop-up newsroom events, here are our best podcast clips of 2019

Connecticut’s defense industry will likely receive a sizable chunk of the $738 billion defense spending bill winding its way through Congress, and that means high-paying jobs.

Reporter Stephen Singer talks helicopters, jet engines and submarines on the latest Capitol Watch podcast.

How much will new food taxes increase your grocery bill starting Oct. 1? We take you through it.

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